Meanwhile, the Sedona Art Center is hosting Elizabeth St. Hilaire Nelson this weekend. The class is on collage, and Elizabeth is a peripatetic, fascinating workshop leader. Class started with a talk and slide show in which Elizabeth detailed her artwork techniques and how they help bring a collage alive with depth and personality.

She then demo’d a number of techniques, in a rapid-fire way, constantly moving, constantly changing papers. She moves fast and creates fast, and while I thought it was just me, when I looked at the photo, her hands really were a blur!

Here’s a technique (above) in which she paints a piece of paper with two colors, one on top of the other (dried in between), then drops alcohol onto the paint. The difference in the surface tension and evaporation rate of the paint and alcohol causes the paint to recede in circles as the alcohol drops onto the page.

When she adds a spray of soap water, the detergent adds a different surface-tension design to the paper. Once the soap was sprayed, she added turquoise spatters. The effect is amazing.

Here’s a page (above) she made using her hotel room key as a paint scraper to apply paint on paper laid over a patterned texture sheet. She sees patterns in shelf liners, stencils, imprint plates, doilies–anything with a texture.

We then got down to painting our own pages and sheets. Tomorrow we start with gluing–something that requires a lot of planning to get the direction and sequencing right.

Sounds like a wonderful class, Quinn – so glad you are having such a good time :-) Thanks, as always, for the fascinating links – and the pictures of your explorations in Elizabeth’s class are very cool.

I checked out some of the books recommended on the website you posted, and read your article about wabi-sabi. I have been into wabi-sabi for years and never knew it! I may have to change my name from ‘dancinghairwoman” to “wabi-sabiwoman”! Hope you have fun today.

Thank you Quinn for this wonderful review and for choosing to take my class. I am humbled, honored, and appreciative. I promise to slow down a bit tomorrow. Maybe. Remember, for me it’s the willingness and ability to “jump!”that keeps it fresh and loose. Do not be afraid to take a leap of faith!

I appreciate it so much in you because I can see you are following the flow of your thoughts. And because I am a slow and plodding learning, it looks like magic to me. You teach who you are, and you have no need to slow down.